NOVEL WEB Chapter 15: Kasugano Haru vs Salvatore Doni!
A grand convoy of black Ferraris slowly made its way towards San Gimignano.
Inside one of the Ferraris in the middle of the convoy, James, seated in the driver's seat, used the rearview mirror to observe the silver-haired siblings in the back, or rather, he was focused on Haru's expression.
Sora gazed out the window at the imposing medieval fortress, admiring the unique foreign scenery. "Wow! Haru, look, look!"
Haru, sitting to Sora's right, smiled gently, his eyes fixed on Sora's delighted face as she marveled at the unfamiliar sights.
Suddenly, a shiver ran down Haru's spine. A sense of foreboding washed over him.
*CRASH!* With a deafening roar, the right half of the ancient structure, the section with the tower, collapsed toward the motorcade. The drivers slammed on their brakes.
Instantly, Haru's body was enveloped in a golden aura. He flung open the car door, stepped out, and with a single stride, teleported to the front of the convoy. He raised his right hand, his movements fluid and precise.
*BOOM!!!*
His right hand made contact with the mountain of stone, golden magical energy spreading across the tower, reinforcing it into a single, solid mass. With a thunderous roar, Haru caught the falling stone tower, his legs sinking slightly into the earth as he absorbed the impact.
His eyes gleaming with a sharp intensity, he sensed something and looked towards the group of three women and one man standing several hundred meters away.
"Good grief, the Italians are quite passionate, aren't they?"
Haru grinned, his head filled with question marks, a hint of menace in his smile. His body radiated an intense golden aura, brighter than the midday sun. It was a terrifying wave of magical energy that dwarfed Salvatore Doni's power, like the collision of continents.
With a powerful heave, Haru hurled the stone tower towards the four figures like a javelin.
The massive stone structure hurtled towards them with a deafening roar, carrying the force of thunder and wind, an unstoppable force of nature.
Salvatore Doni smirked and stepped forward from the group.
His flesh-and-blood hand, starting from the hand, gradually transformed into a mysterious silver metal, until it was completely encased in a silver metallic gauntlet.
Doni swung his cheap knight's sword with his Silver Arm, chanting the incantation.
"I swear, nothing shall exist that my blade cannot cleave. Therefore, this sword can cut and sever all things on this earth, an invincible blade!"
In that instant, Doni swung his sword, seemingly slow, yet in reality, unleashing hundreds of sword flashes, forming an impenetrable net of blades that sliced through the oncoming stone tower with terrifying speed.
The tower was neatly diced into 10 cubic centimeter blocks, then crumbled into countless fragments. The small stone pieces, carrying immense kinetic energy, continued hurtling forward, further disintegrating from the friction with the air, scattering as even smaller shards.
A hail of debris rained down on Haru. His Core pulsed violently. He clenched his right fist and swung it forward, creating a vacuum in the atmosphere. The vacuum shattered, ripping a hole in space itself. The sonic boom reverberated through the air, the shockwave annihilating the billions of stone fragments.
Haru grinned, looking at the disheveled, sword-wielding blond young man across from him. He sensed a familiar aura, the unmistakable presence of a fellow Campione. "Fancy meeting a compatriot here! Nice to meet you. I'm Kasugano Haru, a Campione from the Far East!"
"A Campione! And there are two of them!" Erica and Liliana gasped, their eyes widening in shock.
At that moment, Erica remembered something. Yesterday, before setting out, she had glimpsed a report from the Wise Men's Council on her uncle's desk. It mentioned a boy named Kasugano Haru in the Far East who was suspected of being a Campione.
"So it's true…"
The black-haired Paladin, Saint Raffaello, muttered to herself.
Salvatore Doni's terrifying display of power - cleaving the ancient fortress with his Silver Arm and cheap knight's sword - was something she recognized.
Throughout her long life, fighting alongside those who bore the title of Saint Raffaello, she had witnessed many such displays of supernatural power.
Dejanstahl Voban, who controlled wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, commanding a legion of wolves and wielding hellfire that had scorched the earth, creating vast, barren wastelands. The beautiful Luo Hao, wielding unmatched fists and chanting devastating verses, summoning supernatural flowers that spread across the land.
And now, there was the Sword King, who could cleave all things, and the King of the Far East, who wielded punches that shattered the very air.
"Ahahahaha! Thanks to my long life, I've been fortunate enough to witness the birth of Epimetheus's bastard son, even if only as a brief student!" Saint Raffaello exclaimed, addressing the swordsman with the Silver Arm.
"Hey, idiot Doni! Where the hell did you disappear to?"
"Hmm… I feel like I fought someone somewhere, but I can't quite remember. But it doesn't matter. All I want now is to fight you! I feel like I'll remember everything once we've had a good brawl."
Doni pointed his sword at Haru.
At that moment, Liliana and Erica rushed forward, standing back to back, facing Kasugano Haru and Doni respectively. They dropped to one knee. "We beg you, please stop! This is still within the city limits of San Gimignano. If you two were to fight here, it would result in countless casualties. Please, have mercy and cease this conflict!"
"Sorry about that. Could you two step aside for a bit? Just wait a little while until I'm finished here." Looking at the two girls who had intervened, Doni's right hand shimmered with silver light once more. He plunged his sword into the ground, making a slight incision, then pulled it out.
It was a simple action, yet it created a slash that ripped through the earth!
The ground beneath Erica and Liliana split open, cleaved in two, just like the medieval fortress moments ago.
The two knight girls, stunned, fell into the chasm created by Doni's "slash."
"The nuisance is gone!" Haru muttered, observing Doni across from him, watching as the two girls tumbled into the underground temple. He clenched his fists, his Golden Core pulsing with an invisible force.
"Yes, let's begin, our battle!" Doni laughed, the silver on his wrist fading as he swung his knight's sword, unleashing a slash that seemed capable of splitting heaven and earth.
Haru's body trembled, and the ethereal armor he wore materialized. With a single step, he sidestepped the earth-shattering slash, then, in another stride, he crossed the hundred-meter distance, facing Salvatore Doni head-on. He unleashed a straight punch, carrying the force of a howling wind, aimed at Doni's forehead.
"Your technique is sloppy! Too many openings!" Seeing the ferocious punch coming towards him, Doni was not afraid, but rather, delighted.
He pulled his right hand back, along with his sword, positioning the lower half of the blade behind his waist. He ducked, narrowly avoiding Haru's powerful right fist. Then, with a swift thrust, he plunged his sword into Haru's left abdomen, exposed from the momentum of the previous punch.
"Got you!" Blood stained Haru's shirt crimson. His face took on a demonic expression. He grabbed the blade with his left hand, then, with a sonic boom, slammed his right fist into Doni's head.
Doni's head deformed slightly. His body was sent flying hundreds of meters, crashing into a distant hill. Trees snapped in half along his trajectory, rice paddies were cleaved in two, and the air filled with the sound of collapsing structures. Finally, Doni slammed into the mountainside, forming a crater shaped like a large X, fifty meters deep.
However, in the split second before Haru's fist connected, Doni, sensing the imminent danger, channeled his magical energy, forming a thin veil around his body. The magical veil acted like a cushion, absorbing and deflecting Haru's immense strength. Though his head had been deformed by the impact, Doni had sustained only minor injuries. For a Campione's body, it was nothing more than a scratch, easily healed in an instant.
But the blow triggered something within him.
"Ah, now I remember…"
Memories of the past two weeks flooded Doni's mind.
He had been possessed by the Heretic God Saint George in a museum in Turkey. Before that, he had been hired as a bodyguard by an antique dealer he knew!
Controlled by the Heretic God, he had been forced to travel to a temple in Ireland, where he had spent a week slaughtering and searching for Gods.
In the end, he had managed to escape through a fairy ring into the Netherworld, where the Celtic God Nuada had appeared and engaged in a one-on-one duel with the possessing Saint George.
As a result, Saint George's soul had been destroyed, and Doni had regained his freedom. With the lingering divine power, he had then challenged Nuada to a battle.
"I returned to Italy through the Netherworld, and ended up back in that village, huh?"
Doni shook his slightly dizzy head. He vaguely remembered talking to a woman after his fierce battle with the Heretic God.
"Your memories will likely be jumbled for a while after you return to the mortal world."
"Even though you'll be reborn as a Campione after going through my Ritual, a lousy magician like you will likely suffer brain damage from staying in the 'realm between life and death' for so long. If you lose your memory, find someone to give you a good whack on the head!"
It was advice given by a rather vicious little girl.
In any case, Doni's memories had returned. But memories didn't matter to him. All he cared about was the sword and the thrill of battle.
Crawling out of the crater, Doni realized he had lost his sword during his flight. He casually picked up a dead branch from the ground. The branch was instantly enveloped in silver light. With that simple branch, he unleashed another earth-shattering slash.
"Bring it on!" Haru laughed, taking a step forward. The ground cracked and crumbled, sending debris flying as he dodged Doni's attack. He punched towards Doni's head once more.
Watching the two figures in the distance, casually unleashing attacks that split the earth and shook the air with sonic booms, Saint Raffaello couldn't help but sigh. "As expected, all Campiones are monsters! A Saber who wields a blade that cleaves all things, and a Berserker who fights solely with his fists!"